What's in a Name?
by only-the-sassiest
Summary: Married Whoufflé AU. Something Clara does leaves the Doctor questioning his title. And what will he do without a TARDIS?
1. Losing Sight

**_What's in a name? That which we call a rose_**

**_Would smell as sweet._**

_Romeo & Juliet_

* * *

Clara's eyes snapped open. It was pitch black all around, and she'd fallen asleep in the library again. "Doctor?" she called out groggily, stepping into the light of the corridor. She checked the strategically placed clocks on the door, and found _Earth Time _– it was 2:37 am. He grunted at her from around the corner, and she found him in the console room, removing and replacing a blue joystick. "What is it, Clara?" he asked softly, matching up new joysticks to the slot. He changed his mind, and started unscrewing a nail from the panel he seemed to be replacing in entirety. "Nothing, dear," she replied, her voice clearing, "I couldn't sleep, just wanted to see what you were doing." He smiled at her kindly, and beckoned her over. "This panel has just gotten far too old. There are scratches, even cracks all along this baby. How have I even let her get like this?" he said in all but a squeak of indignation.

The Doctor rolled back in his wheelie chair, his forehead creased with thought. Clara took advantage of his lack of motion and plopped herself comfortably on his lap, taking his hand to turn the gold wedding ring around and around his calloused finger. He pulled gently on a mahogany curl and smiled as it bounced back into shape. _Perfect_, he thought. _Even her hair is perfect_. He was about to continue on about how the joysticks and levers may have come loose over time and which colours he should replace them with, but Clara was already fast asleep against his shoulder. He smiled down at her, pressed a kiss into her hair, and carried her back to their bedroom.

* * *

A tiny silver worm crawled tiringly through the tiny hole in its mesh prison, breathing clean air for the first time in six months. It had been held prisoner there by the Doctor after it took over his mind and Clara had to direct an attack against a Cyberman army. But it was time for the little worm to escape through the hole it took months to make, and stretch its non-existent proverbial legs. It stretched its non-existent legs all the way across the TARDIS, through Clara's ear, and into her brain, where it settled, and transformed in a bubbling mass into a hologram of her with elaborate silver wiring covering nearly half her face. Lurking. Waiting for the right time. She sighed in her sleep, and turned over.

* * *

When Clara woke at mid-morning, she detected the presence immediately and screamed. "_Clara_!" the Doctor cried in concern, and he dropped his sonic to wrap his arms around her. Her gasping breaths slowed to quiet, more relaxed ones, and she turned to the virtual image of the Cyber Planner in her head. Mrs Clever.

_What are you doing in here? You're supposed to be locked up and looking meek._

_Good to see I've been received so... delightfully by the host._

_You disgust me._

_Oh, Impossible Girl, is that what he calls you? How sweet. I __**HATE**__ sweet._

_I hope you know that the Doctor and I are going to stop you, so have a good life, Cyber-thing._

_And how are you planning on doing that, oh __**clever**__ Clara, oh Impossible Girl? _

Cyber Clara smirked darkly.

_Because my worm is in here too, and I can put you out like a light and take over any second. Have fun stopping me when I have complete control over you. _

_Just __**watch**__ me._

"What is it, dear?" the Doctor asked, rubbing the backs of her arms tenderly. Clara shook her head.

"I'm just... It was a bad dream, that's all, Doctor."

He frowned deeply, the creases cutting through his forehead like the ripples on sand plains. "Clara, I want you to know that you can take my sonic any time to get rid of the memory. Just press the green button near the bottom here," he explained, opening a flap to reveal a small green button, "and it'll remove the memory like it never happened. But if it's something you don't want to forget, rather _tuck_ away, press the blue button just above it." He opened another flap right above the green button to reveal a larger blue one.

Clara's POV

_Tuck away, huh?_ My thoughts turned to the self-claimed Mrs Clever.

_The Doctor has enough things to worry about all over the universe, never mind his silly human wife. But would the Cyber Planner be classified as a thought? Is it even eligible to be 'tucked' away? Either way, it must never reach the Doctor. This has to work, it's got to. One way to find out, I suppose. _

I took the sonic from him, popped the flap and pressed the blue button.

_Geronimo_.


	2. Whispering Deceit

_**A/N: This chapter will change your perspective on Cyber Planners entirely, I know it changed mine. Just thought it would be a good idea to show that they're pretty vulnerable too, and that the only thing that gives anyone power is simply the thought that they are powerful.**_

Clara's POV

_No! You can't-_

_Yes, I can. You're never leaving my head, and you're never going to get to the Doctor._

Then it hits me. It's never going to leave my head. _Wow, Clara. Thinking before acting /10._ Cyber Clara chuckled at this.

_You __**do**__ realise what I'm going to do to you right? Because even right now, as I am standing in front of you, I'm hijacking hundreds and __**hundreds**__ of your memories and thoughts, your pitiful human thoughts, with all their pitiful human emotions._

Cyber Clara shuddered in disgust, and I felt like I'd been punched. She could literally take over my mind in entirety – and while I knew that before, it was just so much scarier to have it actually happen. She could do anything to the Doctor as me, _through_ me. I felt ashamed for not having prepared for this previously.

I felt a dark presence well up in the bottom of my stomach, and I screamed again.

_No! No, no, no, no, no... Please, I'm still-_

Click.

Cyber Clara's POV

"Clara?" he cooed again, and I had her fake a warm smile. Soft-hearted idiot. He all but purred. The things I could have Clara do to this man. That made me laugh. I could do anything, I could... I could rebuild my Cyberman armies! With Daleks too! I rubbed her hands together in sheer delight, and froze, but the Doctor thought she was cold, and took her hands in his own.

How... _peculiar_. Such an interesting feeling. Like tingling. But not bad, not at all, so familiar, so dear... I thought for a moment that perhaps I'd once known the feeling, but shoved it away. Clara laughed at me from the corner, and I glared at her.

_Silly little Cyber-me. You've felt it before, haven't you? You've been in love, at least once. I can see it._

I'd forgotten. I'd had a mate, back when I was a young Cyber-worm, it'd always kept me warm. We'd had... _children_. We said we would never leave each other.

I shook the thought from my mind. _Emotions are bad. Emotions are human. I am not human, I am Cyber. _The familiar mantra served to soothe me, and I had her peck the Doctor on the cheek and leave for the library.


	3. What A Shame (When He Finds You)

**_A/N: Cyber Clara is so evil, like wow. It's almost funny._**

* * *

Cyber Clara's POV

Still reeling from the emotions (shudder) Clara triggered, I stumbled slightly through the aisles of the TARDIS library, stopping in the 'Manuals' section. There it was, all tiny and blue and waiting to be read – How To Disassemble A TARDIS For Repair. There would be no repairing of any TARDISes after this.

I giggled, and I shocked us both at how maniacal I sounded. I can't help it if the downfall of the last Time Lord is terribly amusing. Don't look at me like that, you peasant.

Tucking the little book into Clara's blazer pocket, I found the Doctor in the second oldest TARDIS garden, watering a patch of odd pink flowers that looked something like the cyclamens the humans have on Earth. I got Clara to smile and say "Doctor, can you get me a cup of tea?" in her sweetest tone, and she virtually punched my arm as he grinned and ran off to the TARDIS kitchen.

_What are you playing at, Cyber-me?_

_Oh, nothing darling, nothing you would understand or care for. Ugh, humans._

_We're surprisingly intelligent, I think you'll find._

_Ha! I believe the vernacular goes 'that's a good one'?_

Click.

Clara's POV

Got my body back, and my head hurts like hell. I hate watching Mrs Clever manipulate the Doctor with my body, it's wrong, and it's very twisted-

Click.

General Storytelling Perspective (GSP)

_Goddammit, I only just got my body back. Lay off, will ya?_

_No. I will not "lay off" until every inch of this TARDIS is CyberDalek machinery. You make it far too easy for me to return. Come on, human, surely you know by now that emotions make it easy for me. Such slow processors, tut tut. My CyberDaleks will be much, much faster._

_Oh, wow. Is that some __**fearsome**__ new hybrid mutt of Cybermen and Daleks? What fun the Doctor and I will have stopping you. _

_Oh Clara, you don't get it, do you dear? There is going to be __**no **__stopping me. You're not mentally strong enough to keep me out for more than ten seconds, you think you're physically strong enough to defeat my creations?_

_What do you mean... creations? You haven't done anything yet._

_Of course, your pitifully slow human brain hasn't processed the majority of this. No I haven't done anything yet, stupid. But I'm going to use the parts of this old machine to make my own Cyberman and Dalek fusion armies, and I'm using the frozen supernova powering this thing to power them instead. And the __**best**__ part: I'm going to make __**you**__ do it. Oh, what will the Doctor think of his Impossible Girl ruining his ship? He'll surely be quite disappointed. What a shame, truly. And you can't even stop me._

Cyber Clara's POV

I waited until I heard the sound of the Doctor's light singing and the vibrations of the electric kettle before I ran to the console room and started to gently unscrew the panels and dismantle the monitors. The TARDIS groaned ever so slightly, and I hid my virtual presence as Idris scanned Clara's mind. Idris flickered ever so slightly as she passed the memory I was hiding behind, but retreated to her corner of the hologram box – which I hastily disassembled and made to dispose of unceremoniously through the doors of the TARDIS, when I thought better of it. Why not use the TARDIS' vocal interface as my CyberDalek one? I started pulling wires and plugs as the Doctor walked in, two steaming mugs in hand. I made Clara turn and smile at him sweetly.

"_Clara! _What the _devil_ do you think you're doing? Do you _know_- AH!" he squealed, and searched for a nearby surface to put the mugs on. There wasn't one, of course, and I made Clara take one of the mugs, and say "Thank you dear, I was just getting thirsty." I giggled a little too loud, and the Doctor froze.

"Clara, what was that?" he asked quietly, and searched her eyes. Oh dear, it's time for Clara to 'confess'.

Click.


	4. While She's Still With You (I'm Sorry)

Clara's POV

"D-D-Doctor, I... I really... I'm so sorry, it wasn't... _Please_, just don't think that I meant to... Doctor," I stuttered, and my hands were beginning to shake. "Darling _please_," I pleaded with him, but his eyes started to turn cold. "You have to – you have to understand, that wasn't _me_..."

So much for not telling him.

"What was it then?" he demanded, his expression ablaze with anger, sadness, and – something else. Something much more dangerous. I felt my lower lip begin to wobble, and I had to look down at the metal floor and steel myself so that I didn't cry right there and then.

"There's a – a thing, in my head. It got there yesterday, I'm so sorry Doctor, I couldn't... I didn't want to tell you... I didn't want you to worry..."

"Tell me Clara. Tell me now, tell me what made you decide to _tear apart my ship_."

"_It's a Cyber Planner!_" I shrieked, and his frown immediately disappeared as he took my hand.

_Stupid man,_ Cyber Clara said.

_He's not stupid. He's perfect_, I replied sharply. _He loves me, and he hates you. We'll get through it together, and you'll be long gone._

"Why didn't you tell me, Clara?" he asked me quietly, voice trembling in a way I hadn't heard before. I never thought hosting a Cyber Planner was that bad. Like sharing an apartment, but with a home wrecker. "I didn't want you to worry about me," I told him honestly, and he looked like he was about to cry as he turned away from me, running his hands over his face. Lines had appeared where I hadn't seen – or maybe not noticed – them before. "Clara, this is important," he said, turning back around to face me, "the day you said you had nightmares. Was it really a nightmare?" I shook my head sadly. His eyes widened, and he pulled me into an embrace. That's when I felt tears start to drop on my head. "Oh, _Clara_," he choked. "You beautiful thing, you pressed the button." I tried to smile up at him, but it came out more like a grimace. "Why did you do that?" he wondered aloud to the TARDIS ceiling. "Why would you do that to yourself?"

My body trembled, and a large sob hacked its way through my chest as I collapsed into his tweed-covered arms. "It... It said it was going to go after you, Doctor," I managed to tell him between my tears, "I couldn't let it... _her_... I couldn't let her take that from you. I couldn't let her get to you." He placed a hand in my hair and kissed my forehead briefly, wiping the tears from both our eyes. "You pressed the button, Clara. The Cyber Planner, _Mrs_ Clever, she's fully integrated and _stuck_ there. Forever. She's going to take away more and more of you until there's no Clara left. You'll be an empty shell doing her bidding."

It took everything in me not to start crying again. Well, I decided, I was going to go out fighting.

Click.

Cyber Clara's POV

"_Tell her that you love her_, Doctor," I said to him smugly, "_while she's still with you_."


	5. Falling (The Remnants)

**_A/N: Lots of feely-feels in this chapter, probably enough to shed a wee little tear or two. _**

The Doctor's POV

"Do it then. You have to," Clara said, and swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. She was fiercely determined to not cry in front of me. Stubborn, beautiful Clara. "Do what?" I asked her in more anxious a tone than she had ever heard me use; but I already knew what I had to do.

"Kill me. Kill this thing. I was stupid, _so stupid_ – I'll be the one to suffer the consequences, not you. Never you. Fix the TARDIS and run."

"_No_! I've let you die for me too many times, Clara. _Never_ again."

I brought a fist slamming down into the remnants of the console, and held off the tears that crept to the corners of my eyes.

_Remnants of the console_.

And just like that, alarms started to go off and we were hurtling to who-knew-where in the time vortex. Both of us ran about the console, flicking as many switches as would work, but it was no use. All we could do was hope for a safe-ish landing and that the TARDIS' artificial gravity would hold up.

It did, but our bodies did not, as we were hurled violently into the cold metal flooring of the TARDIS. I heard something crack, and froze, thinking it was something vital within Clara, but soon felt the stabbing pains in my neck. It wasn't just that I'd chosen that moment to stop moving. _I literally couldn't_.

Clara's POV

"Doctor?" I called out to him, and he gave an anguished groan in response. I rolled over, ignoring the stabbing pain in my knee, and took his hand. "I'm going to suss out where we landed – while I'm still... me," I told him, hoping against hope that the Cyber Planner's mercy would hold up.

I pulled open the doors and was instantly greeted by the Pond residence.

"Po- ..." he tried to say from behind me, but I shushed him with a finger and ran into the sunlight. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door. "Oswin!" Rory cried as he opened the door, but I shook my head. "Clara," I corrected him. "Look," I continued, "the Doctor and I... actually, that's too long a story. We've just crash-landed in your garden, the console has been torn to shreds, and he can't move. If you could help us, that would be- "

Rory had already pushed past me to fireman lift the Doctor out of the ruins, just as Amy stepped wide-eyed into the doorway, cup of tea in hand.

"Oswin?"

I sighed at the familiar greeting, and corrected her. She nodded, and helped her husband carry my immobile one inside as I shut the TARDIS doors, then theirs.

We sat ourselves on the soft brown sofa, and I placed the Doctor's head in my lap to place a reassuring kiss on his forehead. Amy opened her mouth, and apparently thought better of it. So Rory began "Start from the beginning. The beginning's a good place to start when you're a time traveller."

I went on to explain waking up with the Cyber presence, not remembering much after that, and getting control of my body only to find an angry Doctor. Then falling; lots of falling. The Doctor cracked his neck shortly afterwards with a small explosion of golden dust particles. I jolted upright in realisation. "Doctor, where's the TARDIS?"

The blue box was nowhere in sight.


	6. A Timelord's Tears

**_A/N: Short filler chapter because I think we need a small break from full-on plot to breathe and to reflect. We start with Cyber Clara having taken over, the TARDIS has taken off without them, and the Ponds are very confused – the Doctor's woken up and helped to explain Trenzalore and why she is Clara and not Oswin. Let's all go hate on the Cyber population after this. All those darned Cyber-things and their Machiavellian tendencies. Predominantly a 'Thoughts' chapter; refer to Into His Hearts if you are confused with the context in which I use these. But it's pretty self-explanatory. Here we explore a bit more of Clara's mentality and what she thinks of herself. Bit of an interesting character development; Clara's gone from selfless and mature to emotional and desperate. I guess that's what Cyber Planners do to you. Found an interesting parallel between Amy and Clara's experiences, makes an interesting relationship._**

* * *

Cyber Clara's Thoughts

_There are tears in the Doctor's eyes. Actual tears. I've taken away all he's ever had, his precious Type 40 TARDIS. So emotional for a Time Lord. Really, he could be handling this better. I'm pretty sure he can just get a new one. I tell him so, and he looks at me like I've hit him. I wouldn't blame him, to be honest. I used his wife to destroy his best and most beloved machine beyond repair. Although unfortunately he is faster at making tea than I believed, which resulted in me fatally injuring the TARDIS as opposed to outright killing it._

_Ah, fickle fortune. She can have her body back, for now. I'm bored._

Clara's Thoughts

_He's crying, why is my Doctor crying? The TARDIS is a beautiful old cow; she can handle anything. She'll come back for us soon. Maybe he misses her. At least he has Amy, Rory and I._

_I hope she's okay. The TARDIS, I mean. I hope he knows how I feel. God, it eats me from the inside out. I feel like I actually did it – destroyed the TARDIS. His TARDIS. Well, I did; it wasn't me though! It was Cyber me! Oh, Mum. Would you be disappointed in your straight-A girl? I've been so rash..._

Amy's Thoughts

_I don't understand half of what I was just told about Trenzalore and time streams, but from what I can tell, Clara must be in emotional hell right now. Geez – I mean, she got her body stolen by a Cyber Planner, the Doctor's falling apart, and because of the Cyber Planner, it looked like it was her fault. I can't even fathom what the TARDIS is going through right now. I just want her to make it through to see the Doctor again. Us companions, we come and go, but the TARDIS is what brought us together. The TARDIS was like our life's blood, so to speak. She sheltered us, most of the time anyway. But most importantly, she taught us. She showed me exactly what Rory meant to me when House took over outside of the universe. Seeing him so hurt, so angry, I'd left him without knowing. He grew __**hate **__for me; in all my life, there has been nothing worse than seeing him suffer that way. Because I'd let go of his hand. I'd let House into my head, hoping it'd feel sorry for us. But the evil thing only used him to torture me more. Don't even get me started on Cyber Planners. He sent me three separate letters about that trip with Clara._

_I think I'm hurting because I know exactly how she feels._


	7. Without a TARDIS

**_A/N: I'm seriously beginning to doubt that this fanfic will have any non-feely content. Far out. Enough with the feels, only-the-sassiest. Geez. Another short one, in serious need of prompts or this might all go soon. The same goes for The Blacklists and Unsuited. Anyway, we begin with a dead TARDIS, an angsty Doctor and Clara, and uncertain Ponds._**

* * *

****Clara woke the next day to the sight of the Doctor crying across the room. She leapt out of bed to give him a hug, and he immediately flinched at her contact and wiped his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Clara, you can go back to sleep-"

"Shut up, I want to hug you."

He relaxed into her embrace gratefully.

"Oh Clara. I've failed her. I've failed my TARDIS. After everything we've seen, everything we've done – just like that! She's... gone. The TARDIS was my everything, it contained everything I owned. We were... I was going to live with you, Clara. I was going to take you to the most beautiful places in the universe and show you all the stars and _love _you-"

"_Stop!_" she cried, sobbing into his chest and shaking with sadness. "Do you _know_ what this feels like, Doctor? she continued very quietly. "I do now. I've _destroyed _you - I've destroyed _us_. This is _my fault_!"

The Doctor flinched at the volume of her voice, and the sound of their frightened breaths filled the small guest bedroom.

Amy rested her hands on the kitchen sink, having just finished doing the dishes from breakfast. "So is this going to be a permanent fixture, or..." she began as Rory handed her a cup of camomile. Her husband sat with her at the table, contemplating her enquiry. Finally he nodded. "They've got nowhere else to go, Amy. And he's the Doctor! I mean... without a TARDIS. They've got nothing without the TARDIS," he told her with a note of melancholy. Amy grasped his hand in anticipation as the Doctor and Clara walked into the kitchen.

"We've decided that you're staying for now," Amy blurted as they sat themselves down. Clara grinned for the first time in a while. _Click_.

"That's nice."

The Doctor flew away from Clara's grasp as her eyes visibly darkened and her temperature lowered to an icy feel. "You approve of Clara," she noted with a hint of amusement, tilting her head towards the Ponds.

"But, dear Ponds – what do you think of _me_?"


End file.
